Matt Cowley: Tauranga Business Association CEO on the Port of Tauranga project being halted

There's frustrations over yet another delay to a possible extension of the Port of Tauranga wharves. 

The Stella Passage development fast-track application has been halted, days before an expert panel was due to begin discussions. 

A High Court judge has directed it must not be considered, pending further orders from the court.

Tauranga Business Association CEO Matt Cowley says this is down to the application missing a few words. 

Cowley explained the judge therefore ruled it didn't fit the scope, adding it's amazing a sand dune has impacted millions coming into the economy. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, as I told you yesterday, the Port of Todunger
has had another snag in its efforts to extend the
wolf at Sulfur Point. The port has been trying to
get this consented for years. It's had to fight objections
from local EWE and the Environment Court made an application
to be fast tracked, but then found out that the
application is on hold after a judicial review. Matt Cowley
is the CEO of Toting a business chamber and with

(00:20):
us Hey, Matt, Hey, Heather, I imagine this is hugely disappointing.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well look, Leonard is a very cool, calm and collected guy,
as you would expect from many publicly listed company, but
for them to issue such a statement shows the level
of frustration out there.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, because what are they frustrated by the fact that
they'd left a couple of words out of the application
and as a result of that the judicial review scrupped it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, you wouldn't believe it.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
They managed to get inside Shoesual two of the legislation.
They missed out a few words, so the High Court
judge obviously said, nah, it doesn't flit the scoll And
it's amazing how a little insignificant sand during has gotten
the way millions of dollars into our economy.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Does the E we have ediot like, is there any
merit to the ewe's objections here.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I don't know the ewe's case that much, but burn mitigation,
So even the Environment Court has said that the environmental
impacts are negligible long term, so the mitigation is kind
of what's holding it up, which of course can happen
while building is happening in underway. It's been five years
and there is a lot of frustration up there, particularly

(01:30):
missing cargo and shipping lines to the Americas, which is
obviously a big part of me and Brown's talk around
lining up with China's Belt and Road initiative.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
What does it mean to get this, to get this
wolf done, the extension done. What would it mean for business?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
It will obviously have a long term impact in terms
of greater capacity, because soon there's going to be bottlenecks,
and the last thing we need is supply chain bottlenecks,
you know, with ships eat being delayed or staying left
out at sea just waiting for their anchorage to come in.
And it's just that time delays which really impact and

(02:10):
having to tune ships away because the capacity is a
big no no, not what we need for this economy.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
No, jeez, not at all. Now we are waiting. Obviously,
they were supposed to have the fast track hearing on
the first of September. Do we have yet any idea
when it will once they've managed to refile the paperwork
when we're looking at for that.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Ideally the government would amend the legislation immediately to clear
this up so they don't need to go through judicial review.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's the ultimate involved.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Okay, well, here's hoping, Matt. Thank you very much. Matt Cowley,
toting a Business Chamber of CEO. For more from Heather
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